


work me down

by giraffingallday



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: (the massage isn't sexual there's no sex in this), Confessions, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Massage, Miscommunication, that barely applies its just like the dumb gag i put at the beginning skdjfls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-22
Updated: 2020-05-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:54:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24323104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giraffingallday/pseuds/giraffingallday
Summary: “You totally sound like you’re getting your brains fucked out when you code.”-Dex learns something about himself, then something about Nursey, and then something about the both of them.
Relationships: Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 37
Kudos: 324





	work me down

**Author's Note:**

> um. this isn't as perverted as it sounds, theres no sex in this alksdlkds i just really wanted nursey to give dex a massage while hes stressed
> 
> also i haven't slept in over 50 hours bc i be havin insomnia and i wrote this to pass the night last night n am too tired to edit so, i thank u for ur forgiveness

“ _Fuck_ .” Dex was going to work his voice hoarse from the amount of yelling he’d done that afternoon, and his fingers were aching, shit, he was literally _sweating_ , if he kept this up much longer he’d give himself carpal tunnel or something but - “ _Please_ .” He was so _close_ to finishing, just a little longer at it and -

He hit the enter button on his keyboard, “C’mon, _come on_.”

His program ran - successfully this time - and he leaned back in his chair with a loud groan, “ _Fuck yes! Fuck! Yes!_ ”

God, look, he took a class on programming with Chowder when they were still just frogs, and, despite growing up in a crowded household that shared one old beast of a computer (Rest in peace to the piece of junk, which had been kind enough to wait for his part-time job to afford him a laptop before crapping out in the middle of his senior year finals), found it fun and interesting enough to make it his major. Only now he needed to really understand coding, because half the other students in his classes grew up with fucking Macbooks and private tutors and they’re a thousand miles ahead of him.

(This isn’t all that true, a lot of his classmates were pretty nice, and hate Apple, for reasons that become more and more clear the longer he actually worked with computers, but this set of code had wound him up and earlier in class he’d asked the professor to reexplain a term that should apparently be commonplace to him, and there’d been scattered laughter that made his ears burn when the prof asked if he was pulling his leg, so sue him for feeling a little bitter.)

But the program ran now, and he knew _why_ , which meant he understood it at least a little, and was well deserving of a nice long break before starting on the next step.

The Haus was quiet when he emerged from the basement, and he wondered for a thrilling moment if he was alone, basking in the silence while he padded into the kitchen and got a slice of the peach-blueberry pie Bitty had made earlier. It was good, of course, and he leaned against the counter while he ate, just enjoying being completely by himself - something that hasn’t happened very often since moving into the Haus, even after he moved himself down to the basement.

Footsteps started in the hall and he sighed, tensing just a little before forcing himself to relax. Not alone then.

Nursey stepped into the room and Dex had to resist the urge to go back downstairs without a word. It wasn’t- okay, he and Nurse didn’t always get _along_ but they were d-partners, _friends_ , but Dex was just. He was strung so tight, he wasn’t in the right headspace to keep the peace when Nursey started nitpicking the social implications of a phrase or term like he inevitably would if Dex tried to hold a conversation with him. (He’s learned now that it’s a leftover reflex of Nursey’s from his time at Andover, making sure the privileged white kids he was surrounded by didn’t forget that he wasn’t intimidated by them. That doesn’t stop it from being fucking annoying, but, he tries to be patient.)

“Sup.” Chill as ever, Nursey clearly wasn’t facing the same internal monologue as Dex, and went to the fridge for a bottle of Powerade, “You want one? I made sure to get blue.”

“Oh. Sure.” Nursey tosses a bottle to him and Dex catches it midair and downs half of it in one go - had he had anything to drink while he was working? His water bottle was definitely still in his backpack. “Thanks.”

“Thirsty?” He takes a small sip from his own bottle and smiles, teasing in a way that Dex thinks he can handle.

“Yeah, I’ve been going fucking _hard_ all afternoon, forgot to drink water.” He rolls his shoulders while he says it, suddenly aware of how hunched over he is from sitting at his desk for hours, and groans at the muscle stretch.

Nursey chokes a little on his Powerade at Dex’s words, “Uh. Yeah bro, I could hear you.”

“Sorry. I can get a little too into it sometimes.” Dex blushes without even knowing why he’s blushing, and Nursey seems to tense up, looking away.

“Right.” He clears his throat and looks to the doorway and Dex wonders when Nursey started being the type to look for an exit instead of just… disappearing in a cloud of _chill_ , “I’ll let you uh, I’ll let you get back to that then.”

“Please, no.” Dex shook his head, he couldn’t _imagine_ trying to get back into code now that he’s finally let his brain sizzle down, “I need a break from that shit for a couple hours, wanna watch something?”

“Woah, dude.” Nursey get’s a little closer, quieting his voice, “They’re not like, forcing you to do something you don’t want, right? I’ll kick their ass for you right now, man.”

The following silence is long as Dex stares blankly at him, trying to work out who the fuck he’s talking about, “What?”

Nursey’s frustrated, a little angry, “We were both there for Shitty’s consent talk, Dex, I’m serious.” He looks serious, Dex is seriously confused, but that doesn’t seem to be close enough to the same thing for him to understand what breaking from his homework has to do with consent.

“Nursey, man, what are you talking about?”

This time, it’s Nursey who’s quiet, staring at Dex in a way that’s almost _possessive_ , Jesus, is he okay? “What am I-?” He closes his mouth shut again and his expression shifts to something more confused, “What are you talking about?”

“My coding homework?” Almost immediately Nursey barks out a sharp laugh and Dex jumps from the suddenness of it, squinting, “What? Are you making fun of me because I’ve had a bad day and I’m _not_ in the fucking mood-”

“Bro, no, oh my god.” Nursey pauses for a second to settle his laughter and wipes a hand over his face, shoulders still shaking a little, “You totally sound like you’re getting your brains fucked out when you code.”

That was… not what he expected Nursey to say, and his face heats up in a flush, “Shut up, no I don’t.” But he’s already realizing that, uh, maybe he kind of does, and it’s so _embarrassing_ to realize. To be told by the guy who can grind his fucking gears like no one else.

(He thinks, angrily, because he gets angrier when he’s tense, and he’s _really_ tense, that if the roles were reversed, Nursey would probably still find it funny, and he hates him a little for how relaxed he can be about everything.)

“You do! Oh my god I can’t believe you were doing _homework_ .” He stops to pitch his voice up, not sounding anything like Dex, whose voice is deeper than Nursey’s, thank you, “Fuck! Come on, _yes_!” 

It twists that part of Dex that wound up easy when his siblings would gang up on him as a kid, and he’s already so tense, so his face pinches up, glaring and starting out of the room, “Fuck off, Nurse.” He practically spits it, beelining for the basement door. It’s a harmless chirp, and he already feels bad, because Nursery really hasn’t done anything wrong, but he _had_ said he’d had a bad day, so he smooths that and his bruised ego over the twang of guilt in his stomach to deal with later.

Nursey comes after him, because he’s Nursey, and catches his elbow, “Sorry. Sorry.” They’ve both been doing more of that, apologizing to each other, it was weird most of the time, but in this moment it calms Dex down just enough, “C’mon, you can pick what we watch.” It’s clearly an olive branch, Nursey likes romcoms and horror, and Dex is a coward who also grew up in a town without much space for diverse opinions, so he only watches comedy most of the time, sometimes documentaries, making movie picking an argument every time.

“Fine.” He huffs it, acting a little petulant because he can, but knowing he’s going to put on Tarzan because Nursey walked in on him watching it once, and joined him instead of poking fun, so it’s probably one of very few movies they both like. Nursey takes his win with a smile.

They settle easily into the living room, because Nursey is probably the most casually tactile person Dex has ever met, and has no problems with sprawling out on the couch and pulling Dex’s feet into his lap so he’s forced to sprawl out too. Dex starts up Netflix and tries to pretend he doesn’t flush when Nursey’s hand closes over his ankle, thumb brushing against his skin like an afterthought and.

And here’s the thing.

Growing up, Dex knew he didn’t fit into that convenient box labelled ‘heterosexual’ that his parents raised him in, he probably wasn’t gay, maybe bi, or something, but. Not straight. He’d only dated girls through high school, because he was a little scared to even think about any other attractions he might have had. And then college had happened, and he’d had a guy blow him in the bathroom at his _first_ college party, and hooked up with a couple more that semester (nothing serious, but he did learn he wasn’t half bad at giving head, which was good to know) before he stopped hating Nursey because he was pretentious and rich and _way_ too into poetry, and started hating him because he was gorgeous and relentlessly nice and when he wasn’t chirping Dex within an inch of his life he was _gentle_ with him and. And.

And so he started the movie and paid attention to exactly zero of the opening scene, practically shaking when Nursey’s other fingers joined in with his thumb, massaging one ankle and then the other, “Dude.” He stage-whispered - he always talked during movies, like he’d explode if he let one movie play in full silence, “You okay? You’re fucking tense, bro.”

 _Maybe that’s because you’re touching me like you want to take care of me._ Dex thought, then he said, “Long day. Shh.” Because he hated when people talked during movies. Nursey did not care.

“Obviously.” And then he fucking - he fucking starts really massaging him, pads of his thumbs pressing up the arches of Dex’s feet and into his heels, then sweeping behind his ankles to his calves, eyes on the movie the whole time, looking so fucking _chill_ that Dex wants to strangle him because he can feel for sure now that he’s definitely shaking a little against the struggle to not make any humiliating sounds in response to what’s a fucking _good_ massage. Nursey notices but - probably because of Dex’s aforementioned long day - rather than chirping him he pulls the throw blanket Bitty kept over the back of the couch over them, and keeps going until Dex’s legs feel boneless and relaxed, “Sit on the floor.”

“What?” What, so Nursey gives him one little massage and now he gets the couch to himself? Ha, right. (Part of him just wants to like, do anything Nursey asks, but he has to maintain _some_ dignity.)

“I’m gonna do your shoulders next, here, take the blanket, you were shivering earlier.” It’s nice, in a way, that Nursey’s being nice, but it makes his stomach turn over because it doesn’t _mean_ anything, just a bro helping his bro unwind, Nursey’s always like that, to everyone. Not like, handing out massages to the entire team, but he cares for people all the time. It’s starting to fuck Dex up a little, because it warms his chest to feel taken care of like this, and because he’s a sucker for false hope, apparently. He sits on the floor, soft blanket pooled over his lap.

It’s safe to assume the shoulder massage would be just as good as the foot massage, but he severely underestimated how long he’d been in the same position, and hadn’t stretched out anything; so when Nursey’s fingers dig into the spot between the base of his neck and the start of his shoulder and smooth out his mouth drops open and he groans, head falling forward to focus on how _good_ it feels and hoping Nursey can’t see the red of his ears after the sound he made.

“Huh.” Nursey huffs a little laugh out of his nose but doesn’t stop working, “You blush on the back of your neck too.” He tells him, not a joke, just an observation, fingertips skimming over the spot in question for half a second before he goes back to the knot of muscle by Dex’s spine. 

It makes Dex blush harder anyway, skin hot knowing that Nursey can _tell_ he’s blushing and Dex doesn’t even have an excuse to turn around and gauge his reaction, “Shuddup.”

The slur in Dex’s voice makes Nursey laugh more solidly and then they’re quiet, the noise of the movie filling the room enough to keep things comfortable while Nursey forces him to unwind. When the movie ends, and the credits end, and Netflix shrinks the screen in favor of an banner ad for their newest original series, the room goes quiet, and Nursey doesn’t stop, working on the big knot of muscle at the base of Dex’s neck now that every other muscle in his back is made of gelatin, “Feel better?”

“Bro, I’m gonna have to pay you to do this like, every week.” Feel better is a fucking _understatement_ , normally, he had to wait for the coil to snap, for him to blow up at someone, before he settles out of tension like he’d been building but now it was just… gone.

Nursey huffs a little, sounding pleased, and smooths his hands down Dex’s back once more before pulling away. Dex wants to beg him to keep going but, they’re just bros, and that would make it like, beyond weird, “Don’t have to pay me.” Nursey says, voice a little soft, “I actually, ha, had an ulterior motive here, I was trying to chill you out so I could talk to you about something. While everyone is out.”

Like a switch Dex is all tensed up again, and Nursey reaches out to press his thumb against the nape of Dex’s neck, “Woah, calm down.” And he does, just because he was told to, which, huh, is something new, “Come back up here, I don’t wanna talk to your back, man.”

Dex does, and finds it suddenly infinitely harder to look Nursey in the eyes, now that he feels pliant and loose and _calm_ because of him. Because of his friend who he openly and frequently doesn’t get along with. Who he has a small (or giant) crush on. 

Nursey has his hands stretched out towards Dex when he finally does look at him, and Dex looks back at the hands, entirely unsure of what Nursey’s expecting, “I didn’t do your arms.” He explains, and Dex offers one of his hands dumbly, watching as both of Nursey’s hands take his wrist and start working over the tendons carefully, “So, would you - would you say that, like, you still hate me as much as you did when we first met?” He sounds nervous, and Dex can’t imagine what part of the free full body massage he’s been letting Nursey gave him the impression that Dex could hate him.

“No, dude, I never really hated you. I’m just an asshole.” He shrugged, trying to channel some of Nursey’s eternal zen, he doesn’t do well, cheeks tinged pink when Nursey presses his thumb down and pushes it up Dex’s forearm to soothe a muscle he didn’t even know he _used_.

“No, you’re not.” Nursey replies, voice firm, he doesn’t look at Dex, for once, while he talks, focusing on Dex’s arm, paying close attention to his wrists and the plush curve of muscle at the base of his thumb, “I never hated you either. I think you just scared me a little.”

“Scared you?” There isn’t room for anything but disbelief in his tone; _he_ scared _Derek Nurse_ ? Maybe pigs do fly, “I’m not really _scary_ , am I?”

“No! Jesus, I keep insulting you.” Dex wants to correct Nursey, because Dex insulted himself the first time, and Nursey didn’t even really insult him either way, but Nursey switches out Dex’s arms and keeps talking before he has the chance - which is something he’d chirp him about if Nursey didn’t look so _nervous_ , “I meant, like I was intimidated, which was dumb, because it’s not like you’d look down on me, but I didn’t _know_ that, and I was still used to the Andover crowds, and we had to be defense partners and I didn’t. I didn’t know how to act around you.” 

He pauses for a second and Dex can see he’s working his brain over words, editing like the writer he is before he speaks so Dex waits, trying to piece together what Nursery’s trying to tell him, “I had friends at Andover, of course, but I tended to stick to people like me, bookworms, chill smokers, the GSA kids could be weird but, I hung out with them sometimes.”

“No hot headed gingers?” Dex teases, he means to sound playful but Nursey sets his arm down and he feels so _relaxed_ that instead it comes out a little dopey sounding, and the color on his cheeks darkens from pink into scarlet at the sound of his own voice.

Nursey smiles, turned sideways to face Dex while he dissolves into the cushions like butter on a hot pan, “No, I knew a girl with red hair, but she was a natural brunette. No one like you, Dexy.” The nickname makes him feel good, better about how close he is to straight up zonking out, because it means Nursey’s calming down from whatever amped up his nerves before, “So I had friends but, my friends didn’t fight. It was like, ingrained in them to be good little decorations for their parents parties, so they just kept everything down, but you didn’t - don’t - and so, the first time you snapped about whatever I thought you had just, like, decided you didn’t like me before even knowing me, and I got defensive.”

“Nursey.” Dex says, smile twitching at the corner of his lips, “You’re rambling.”

“And you’re falling asleep while I do it.” Nursey chirps back, before shaking his head, “I am. I’m anxious.”

“Why?” The reply is automatic, he remembers Nursey coming into the bathroom while he was brushing his teeth to take his pills, so unless it was situational he shouldn’t be feeling anxious. He refuses to feel bad for keeping an eye out for Nursey’s mental health, crush or no crush he cares about his friends.

Nursey scrubs a hand over his face and sighs, “Because you look really pretty like this.”

Oh.

Dex doesn’t say anything at first, lips parting in surprise and droopy eyes opening wide. He. Well, okay, first things first, he’s never really thought of himself as _pretty_ but lord did heat fill his face at the word, sinking back a little more. And then, well, it was Nursey that called him pretty, which means. Well all it really means is he thinks Dex’s looks pretty but that - that could mean a lot of things. Potentially. “I do?”

“Yeah, Dex.” Nursey’s voice has softened out, and he reaches a hand out to ghost the back of his knuckles against Dex’s knee, “I wanted you to relax enough to talk but. I didn’t expect this.” He leans in a little while he talks, making Dex sink further, boneless, “You’re soft and flushed and _relaxed_ , it’s gorgeous.” Dex shivers a little under the praise and knows the blush on his face is spread down his neck and up his ears but Nursey thinks it looks _pretty_. Nursey seems to catch onto his movements and smiles gentler than Dex has ever seen, inching close enough to move his knuckles from Dex’s knee to his cheek, tracing a pattern in his freckles.

“Is this because you were jealous of my code?” He can’t help it, a light chirp, his voice sounds halfway dazed anyway, a mix of the massage and Nursey’s eyes on him making him yield easy, but Nursey had called him pretty which was a fairly big switch from the way he avoided his eyes in the kitchen before he knew it was homework so. Dex just wants to make sure it’s not just about the moment, that Nursey actually likes him.

“Shut up.” Nursey says, grinning a little, “Yes. I was. But you’re even pretty when you yell at me.” _Pretty_ rolls of his tongue easier this time, now that it’s been out once, and Dex hums a little, pleased with the affection, “So, you’re pretty, and I think so, and. And.” He can see him reaching for the words, trying to make it sound just the way he imagined.

Dex rolled his eyes, “Nurse.” Voice deadpanned as he could manage while looking at Nursey, Nursey who likes him, who thinks he’s pretty, “Kiss me.”

If you had asked Dex (or Nursey, in all fairness) how he thought it would go if the two of them kissed, he would’ve guessed it would be in a fit of rage. He imagined a struggle for power, both of them trying to get the upper hand, teeth and hard hands pushing and pulling - it was something he thought about a lot, it’d be hot as fuck. But it was nothing like that.

After Dex spoke Nursey’s face had broke into soft awe, a little excitement mixed in, and put his free hand on Dex’s waist, holding him down (and he _liked_ that, okay, filed away) and spreading the fingers dancing over his cheek to hold it in a solid grip. He leaned in, too slow, and brushed their lips together, pulling back when Dex tried to lean up into it; he couldn’t help the little whine that left him, he’d wanted this for so _long_ , and anyway, it put the nicest smile Dex has ever seen on Nursey leaned in and kissed him properly. It was. Wow. Everyone who meets Nursey knows he’s _chill_ , but everyone who _knows_ him knows he also leans towards _tender_. He kisses slow and easy, coaxing Dex’s mouth open and letting himself in, he rest his weight over Dex, ground him, and Dex feels dizzy and more than a little out of it when Nursey finally let’s them come up for air, “Was that okay?”

Dex is going to die - if this was the nervous kissing, how the fuck was he going to survive when Nursey was confident with it? “Yeah, really good.” He promises, trying to lean up for a kiss and parting his lips a small gasp when Nursey keeps holding him down, “Nurse.” He whines, pulling against him a little, “Kiss me again.”

“Wait.” And Dex worries for a terrifying moment that he hadn’t even thought of his _own_ performance, and what if Nursey didn’t like kissing him? _Oh god-_ “Will you be my boyfriend?”

“What?”

Nursey rolls his eyes and squeezes Dex’s side, “You heard me, Dexy.” He sounds anxious again, Dex wants to change that immediately.

“Yes. Dumbass, yes of course.” He leans again, and Nursey doesn’t let him reach his lips but he’s not holding him down as deliberately (Dex is big enough to admit that he kinda wishes he had), more like he just wants to look at him, but he’s smiling now.

“Dex.” Nursey sounds a little careful, waiting for Dex to look at him before continuing, “I really want to take you to my room and make you sound like you’re coding.”

Dex groans and squirms and _Jesus_ , Derek Nurse was seriously going to fucking kill him, “Dude, if you don’t throw me over your shoulder and take me upstairs right now we’re already breaking up.”

Nursey laughs, light and breezy, and does just that.

**Author's Note:**

> im. considering upping the rating and making a chapter 2 of what happens when they get upstairs, lmk if that would interest u
> 
> also thank u for reading! i'm a roomba that can only vacuum up kudos and comments, please give my life a purpose


End file.
